Monday, May 31, 2010

by Herbert I. LondonVienna is a city bursting with history. The Vienna of jack boots and swastikas is a distant memory. On the surface, the contemporary Vienna is prosperous, peaceful and civilized.But there is another Vienna percolating beneath the surface, a dark presence that has the potential to undo the tranquility Austrians have come to accept as the norm. This is the Austrian version of banlieus, the areas populated by Muslims, mostly Turkish. In these areas, crime is on the rise, resentment is palpable and buildings are marred with graffiti.Most significantly, the average person refuses to recognize the potential problem these communities represent. If one points out the dangers, the specter of Islamophobia or racism is raised as a chilling censor, and defenders of Enlightenment ideas, such as individual rights, property rights and the rule of law are castigated as right wing fanatics when they insist on applying these principles to Muslim minorities.More...hudsonny.org

MITROVICA, Kosovo -Riot police are using tear gas and pepper spray to separate hundreds of ethnic Albanian and Serb protesters in the divided town of Mitrovica.About 2,000 ethnic Albanians are demonstrating against Serbia’s local elections held in the Serb-dominated part of the town.The protesters, led by veterans of the 1998-1999 war against Serbia, see Sunday’s vote as a breach of Kosovo’s sovereignty. Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence.Hundreds of Serb counter-demonstrators threw stones and fireworks as police struggled to keep the two sides apart.Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse Serb protesters trying to charge across a bridge splitting the town into a Serb north and Albanian south. NATO peacekeepers were also deployed on the bridge.serbianna/michaletos

Sunday, May 30, 2010

By BENJAMIN WEINTHALBERLIN – The Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg (Picture) hosted a conference last week supportive of the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and with the participation of advocates of revolutionary Islam. Manfred Murck, a spokesman for the Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungschutz), the domestic intelligence agency, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that there are “roughly 30 members of pro-Iranian Hizbullah” in Hamburg “who meet in the Islamic Center Hamburg.”Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed the director of the Islamic Center Hamburg, which is part of the Imam Ali Mosque. The mosque’s imam, Ayatollah Reza Ramezani, used his platform to call for participation at the 2009 Al-Quds Day, an anti-West and anti-Israeli hate festival, whose goal is the “liberation of Jerusalem from the Zionist system.”The center is one of the oldest Iranian Shi’ite mosques in Europe, established in the late 1950s.The German “Islamic Way” association, which understands its mission as a branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp, helped organize the “Peace Congress” in Hamburg.The European Union (although there is a proposal in the Dutch parliament to ban the Guard) has declined to place the Revolutionary Guard on its list of terrorist groups, and the German Foreign Ministry has not pushed to recognize the Guard as a terrorist organization.According to Iran experts, the Guard was the key instrument in suppressing the the pro-Democracy movement last June as well as advancing Iran’s drive to go nuclear.Hamburg was the launch pad for the Hamburg Cell that spawned Mohamed Atta and his 9/11 associates.Germany’s Interior Ministry has refused to ban Hizbullah, and there is scarcely any media or public criticism of the group’s activities. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are approximately 900 active Hizbullah members in Germany. Critics argue that Germany refuses to ban the Iranian-proxy Hizbullah because German industry – and its political supporters – seek to maintain its flourishing trade partnership with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Imports and exports between the two countries reached record levels in the first quarter of 2010.jpost.com

Saturday, May 29, 2010

by sheikyermamiUseful idiots:Muslims thank Germans for Gujarat solidarityTwo US-based Indian Muslim groups have praised German parliamentarians, who last month justified the European Union’s position in barring GujaratMore...

Friday, May 28, 2010

By BENJAMIN WEINTHALCountry's exports to Islamic Republic hit 385m euros in March, up from 261m a year earlier.BERLIN – Booming trade between Germany and Iran in the first quarter of 2010 prompted the Stop the Bomb NGO to slam Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration on Wednesday for protecting its tight economic relationship with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government.“Every continued form of support on the economic and political level represents direct complicity with the terror of the Ahmadinejad clique,” Stop the Bomb spokesman Andreas Benl, based in Hamburg, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.According to the pro-Teheran German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg, there was a significant increase in German exports to Iran, to €385 million in March 2010 from €261m. in March 2009. During the period January to March of this year, German exports to Iran increased by 15% from the same period in 2009. Iranian exports to Germany climbed 94% during the first quarter of 2010, compared to the same period a year ago.“The Iran lobby’s rejoicing shows that nothing has changed in the support by German industry that is crucial to the regime’s existence, and that there is no sign of a ‘discouragement strategy’ by the federal government. Germany continues to be Iran’s most important trading partner,” Benl said.More...jpost.com

Thursday, May 27, 2010

by sheikyermamiMerkel urges Europeans to discover “Islamic civilization”“Poverty causes terrorism” & ”education will cure all ills”‘We need respect for differing perceptions about values,’ she said, adding that global developments made cross-border exchange easier. Merkel, who has a doctorate in physics, said the ‘true source’ of prosperity and stability for all was education.(Most of the successful terror attacks were committed by privileged, educated Mohammedans. Merkel failed to mention how education would reduce terror attacks from soldiers of Allah who hold doctor titles and engineering degrees….)More...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Picture: E.ON Ruhrgas Headquarters in the German city of EssenBy Ioannis MichaletosThe developments regarding the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, that recently grabbed attention, mostly by the introduction of the German energy giant EON in the project, are to be coupled by the immediate access of Azeri gas through Turkey to Europe. The TAP will bring gas to Italy through Turkey-Greece-Albania. More specifically, the Vice President of Statoil, Mr. Rune Bjornson, has recently stated in a press conference in Brussels that Turkey and Azerbaitzan are due to sign an agreement by which natural gas from the latter will flow in a transit form in the territory of the former.More...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A proposed EU directive on hedge funds has more to do with scapegoating than addressing Europe’s economic problemsby John Rosenthal“For the locusts in the finance sector, a new age is dawning.” This is how German Social Democrat and Member of the European Parliament Udo Bullmann commented on the prospect of new EU-wide regulations for hedge funds.Bullmann is the spokesperson on economic matters for the delegation of German Social Democrats in the parliament. Bernhard Rapkay is the chair of the Social Democratic group, and Rapkay is quoted saying exactly the same thing in his own press release. “It is high time that we get serious about regulating highly speculative funds,” Bullmann and Rapkay continued unisono. “Europe cannot look on without doing anything when financial gamblers are driving whole countries or branches of industry to the wall.” Party discipline in the German Social Democratic Party appears to be very strong indeed!The comments were made last Tuesday after the parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs voted in favor of a new European Union directive regulating “alternative investment fund managers.” Later that day, the finance ministers of the 27 EU member states likewise gave their nod to the directive. The action had long been resisted by the United Kingdom, where some 80% of Europe’s hedge funds are said to be based. But on the urging of Germany, the matter was now brought to a vote. “That’s the way it is in Europe,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble remarked dryly. “There are decisions that are taken against [the will of] a single member state.” A final version of the law has still to be approved by the full parliament.More...pajamasmedia.com

Monday, May 24, 2010

A new mosque that is one of the largest in Germany was officially opened in Berlin's Kreuzberg quarter, which has a strong Turkish presence. The mosque, which can hold around 1, 000 people, is part of a complex that media reports said cost around 10 million euros (12.5 million dollars) to build and was entirely financed by private Lebanese and Palestinian donors.The mosque is topped by a glass dome and four small minarets, and is part of a six-storey, 5,000-square-metre building that includes commercial and social centres and a library.Germany's largest mosque can accommodate 2, 500 people and is in the city of Mannheim in the west of the country.

Friday, May 21, 2010

By ZALMAN SHOVALAt last, Daniel Cohn-Bendit has come out of the closet – after decades confusingly claiming to be either French or German, he has finally acknowledged his Jewishness. Unfortunately it was for the wrong reason. Apparently, some 3,000 or more European Jewish intellectuals, some of them genuine, others self-anointed, have signed a petition titled “Call for Reason,” warning “that utter support for the Israeli Government is dangerous.” One may assume that many, perhaps most, of the signatories including such well-known luminaries as Bernard-Henri Levy and Alain Finkielkraut (as well as Mr. Cohn-Bendit), consider themselves friends of Israel, while others may think that they do the right thing by humanity – all of which they presumably believe gives them a right to claim to know better than the majority of Israelis what the true interests of the State of Israel should be.More...

A new initiative aims to lower the disproportionately high number of suicide attempts among young German-Turkish women thought to be caused by familial conflicts.While a nationwide study has yet to be undertaken, regional data from Cologne and Frankfurt shows that young women of Turkish background try to kill themselves twice as often as their German counterparts, daily Die Welt reported on Friday.More...

Thursday, May 20, 2010

by John RosenthalJoe Biden’s May 6 speech to the European Parliament appears to have been largely ignored by the American media, both old and new. The full performance can be viewed below.The video comes complete with images (at 0:18 of the clip) of Biden puffing out his chest as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the unofficial EU anthem, is played.Biden and the president of the parliament, Jerzy Buzek, appear to believe that one is supposed to puff out one’s chest during the playing of the EU anthem, in the same way that one is supposed to put one’s hand over one’s heart during the playing of the American national anthem. Perhaps it is so. Green Party parliamentary leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit chatting amiably and chuckling during the playing of the anthem (0:34) is another nice touch. Americans in particular might notice that the chamber is only about half full at best. This is actually not a bad day at the European Parliament, which is renowned for its absenteeism.More...

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENTBERLIN – A synagogue in the city of Worms (Picture), in Rhineland-Palatinate state, was attacked by arsonists on Monday.The vandals left a note linking their torching of the synagogue with the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the regional paper *Wiesbadener Kurier reported. German police found eight copies of a note written in “awkward” German, claiming responsibility for the blaze.“So long as you do not give the Palestinians peace, we are not going to give you peace,” read the note.Prosecutor Klaus-Peter Mieth said the authenticity of the note was still an open question.Authorities said there was no serious damage to the synagogue.Levi Salomon, who heads a task force combating anti-Semitism for the 12,000-member Berlin Jewish community, told The Jerusalem Post it could not be ruled out that German-Palestinians set the synagogue afire. While there are no current statistics on the rise of Islamic anti-Semitism in Germany, Salomon said he had observed an increase in expressions of Muslim-based anti-Semitism. Observers said the attackers could be from the extreme Left, neo-Nazis or radical Islamists, because what unites these groups is their hatred of Israel.Stella Schindler-Siegreich, the head of the Jewish community in Mainz, traveled to Worms and told the *Kurier, “We are a small minority in Germany and we have a such a history.”Germans destroyed the synagogue in Worms in 1938 and it was rebuilt in 1961. In contrast to many Jewish institutions in Germany, the Worms synagogue does not have a police presence or barricades, according to Schindler-Siegreich. The synagogue was built in 1034.The Jewish Cemetery in Worms, dating from the 11th century, is believed to be the oldest in Europe. The Rashi Shul, a synagogue dating from 1175 and carefully reconstructed after its desecration on Kristallnacht, is the oldest in Germany. Prominent rabbis from Worms include Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi), Elazar Rokeach and Yair Bacharach. At the Rabbinical Synod held at Worms in the 11th century, rabbis for the first time explicitly prohibited polygamy.More...

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

by Nebojsa MalicIn the morning hours of Friday, May 7, Radislav Krstic was nearly murdered. Three men barged into his cell at Wakefield prison, beat him and repeatedly attempted to slit his throat with a makeshift blade. Krstic is 62 years old and missing a leg. He is also a former general of the Bosnian Serb army, convicted in 2004 by the Hague Inquisition of "aiding and abetting" the alleged "genocide" in Srebrenica.Not surprisingly, the media reporting on the attack have used the opportunity to harp on the Official Truth about Srebrenica and paint Krstic as some sort of bloody monster, while describing his near-slaughter as a "revenge attack." It is the same phrase that was used to excuse the terror attacks of the KLA against the non-Albanian population of Kosovo since the Serbian province was occupied by NATO in 1999.There was no sympathy for a handicapped old man, or consternation that this could happen in a maximum-security facility. Rather, by painting it as a "revenge hit" against a "reviled" Serb convicted of "genocide," the media have made heroes out of the three Wakefield thugs. One of them is Indrit Krasniqi, a Kosovo Albanian convicted of torturing, gang-raping, and murdering a 16-year old Briton in 2006.Wakefield is a facility for violent sex offenders, but apparently the UK government uses it to house war crimes convicts as well; in addition to Krstic, another inmate is former Bosnian president Momcilo Krajisnik.More...

Monday, May 17, 2010

Pro-Palestinian arsonists attacked a synagogue in Worms (Picture) on Sunday night, police in the Rhineland-Palatinate city said on Monday. According to initial investigation the building was doused in flammable liquid at several points and set alight, the spokesperson said. A resident alerted police to the fire at the synagogue on the Judengasse, which is reportedly not under constant surveillance.Fire fighters in the city were able to put out the blaze quickly, and the building was not heavily damaged. The walls were however blackened by soot, a fire department spokesperson said. The police search for the perpetrators has been unsuccessful so far. Officers have engaged in a widespread investigation and have called for witnesses to step forward, police said. There were no injuries in the arson attack.The city of Worms has called the stone building, built in 1034, one of Germany’s oldest synagogues. After being destroyed by the Nazis in 1938 the building was restored between 1958 and 1961.More...

"Anybody can make it." the German integration minister Maria Böhmer, doesn't rule out that Germany will soon be led by a Turkish-origin chancellor.This is "no longer a utopia," the CDU politician told Focus-Interview. Gradually there's more and more acceptance of immigrants in higher office. "The message is: anybody can make it to the top - regardless of their origins."The minister admitted that on the topics of integration and immigration there's been serious failures for many years. "The issue of integration played no role in Germany for a long time, not even in my party, the CDU. Others believed that multiculturalism would somehow take care of itself. That is not the case," Böhmer told FOCUS.She criticized the fact that foreign academic and professional qualifications aren't always recognized in Germany. "That is no longer acceptable," she says, and added that it caused an unparalleled waste of resources. "On the one hand we complain of a lack of doctors in rural areas. On the other hand, senior physicians who have to us from the Ukraine, as classified as nursing assistants. We can no longer afford that. It also means disregarding people, their skils and their abilities."The minister was indignant about workplaces who prefer Germans over immigrants with the same qualifications. "When somebody has no opportunities just because of their name or origin, that is discrimination. Such a thing should not happen," said Böhmer. She pointed to the importance of immigrants to the German economy. "We urgently need skilled workers, to cope with the demographic change and to persist in the competition for the best minds. Even now, some training and job places can't be filled."More...

Sunday, May 16, 2010

German authorities said Friday they had taken into custody two Libyans on charges of espionage. Federal prosecutors said the two men, identified only as 42-year-old Adel Ab. and 46-year-old Adel Al., were suspected of obtaining information on exiled Libyan opposition groups since 2007 in Germany and in other European nations. The purpose of their activities was apparently "to weaken exiled opposition movements to the point of obliteration," prosecutors said in a statement. The two was arrested in Berlin on Thursday, they added.More...

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Introduction by Dr. Clemens Heni (New Haven, CT, and Berlin, Germany)Islamic Jihad is among the biggest threats to world peace and particularly to Jews and the Jewish state of Israel. Since 9/11, though, many academics, politicians, and activists are denouncing any substantial criticism of Islamic anti-Semitism, the entire concept of Islamic Jihad, and lawful Islamism likewise.Germany established a so called German Islam Conference, headed by the ministry of interior. The next round will take place on May 17, 2010. Among the new members of this conference is a German-Bosnian scholar, Armina Omerika. She works particularly on Islam, identity and Muslims in Bosnia.However, an inside view in some of her work sheds light on questions she seems to ignore, like the role of Alija Izetbegovic and the Muslim support for the Nazi Waffen-SS during World War II in Bosnia. Omerika is supposed to be an expert on the “young Muslim” movement, though we cannot find a clear statement of her criticizing Islamic Jihad, including the writings of Izetbegovic, author of the infamous Islamic Declaration.Worse, Omerika even seems to honor and praise Husein Djozo (1912-1982), one of the leading Muslim theorists and activists in Bosnia (respective former Yugoslavia). Djozo was probably also part of the Waffen-SS, as several Neo-Nazi homepages proudly announce.More...

Friday, May 14, 2010

The plans for the "Center for Islam in Europe in Munich" (‘Zentrum für Islam in Europa in München’, ZIEM) with a great mosque, are now uncertain as it turns out that imam Benjamin Idriz has close links with Islamic organizations like Milli Görüs and the Islamic Community of Germany (IGD) who are linked to the Muslim Broterhood.The security service taped phone conversations of Idriz with leaders of both organizations. Milli Görüs is banned in Germany. The ZIEM was supposed to have a state-supported academy for imam training in Germany. ZIEM was suposed to bring an open European and German-speaking Islam and respect the values of the constitutions.A couple of weeks ago the SP, CSU, Greens and FDP all expressed their support for the ZIEM plans.More...

No separation between Church and State, calling for the murder of unbelievers, Mohammed's massacre of the Jews: Is Islam compatible with our constitution?Yesterday the minaret ban. Today the burka ban. And tomorrow? The media and politicians stumble from Islam debate to Islam debate. Which Muslim symbol would be on the agenda next? The beard of the prophet? His water-pipe? Or should the wearing of a "takke" be banned, those white prayer caps which the representative of the Central Islamic Council (IZRS) particularly likes to wear in public? His doctoral thesis initially lay dormant, almost unnoticed, in the libraries. It turns out that the study by Swiss Islam researcher Lukas Wick is of the highest interest. In about 200 pages the Zurich resident deals with the question to what extent is Islam compatible with the modern constitutional state, such as Switzerland. Wick is skeptical. As long as Islamic theology allows no religious freedom, the integration of Muslims in secular Europe will be difficult. His findings are based on an excellent knowledge of Arabic and the original sources. Wick had acquired them on visits to Damascus and Beirut.Source: Die Weltwoche 1, 2 (German)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Berlin - A German Muslim group unexpectedly pulled out Wednesday from planned talks with the government about the integration of Islamic values, days before discussions were to restart. The Central Council of Muslims said the government-sponsored Islam Conference had no concrete goals and did too little to tackle Islamophobia."The German Islam Conference is nothing but a government-decreed forum," said Ayyub Axel Koehler, who heads the nationwide alliance of Sunni mosques.Koehler criticized the interior ministry for failing to address any of his organization's key concerns.The Central Council of Muslims took part in the interior ministry's first Islam Conference, from 2006 to 2008.However they demanded a series of changes to be implemented before discussions resumed, and complained that not enough devout Muslims were being invited to the three years of planned talks with the government.More...

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENTHead of Swiss Jewish community slams Gaza - Holocaust comparisons and reference to Israel as "an illegal atomic state."BERLIN – The head of Switzerland’s 18,000-member Jewish community, Jonathan Kreutner, told The Jerusalem Post this week that the “highly anti-Israeli” comments made by two leading Green Party parliamentary members in the Swiss National Council were “unacceptable.”The remarks, which were also criticized in Swiss media reports over the weekend, were made by Daniel Vischer and Geri Müller during interviews conducted by the Swiss branch of the conspiracy Web site “We Are Change” at a “Free Gaza” demonstration in Zurich in January. Footage of the interviews was posted on the site in late April.Vischer, who is also head of the Swiss-Palestinian society, termed Israel “an illegal atomic state” and a “rogue nation.” His party colleague Geri Müller compared Israel’s Gaza policies to the Holocaust.Jonathan Kreutner, general-secretary of the Swiss Jewish community, told the Post on Monday that “the statements by the two Green national councillors are unacceptable in our eyes and highly anti-Israeli.”“Of course one might ask why two parliamentarians would give an interview to an organization that was called a conspiracy movement by a Swiss newspaper. The interviewer claimed, for example, that the media are centralized through the two agencies, AP and Reuters, and that both companies are in the hands of the Rothschild family.“National Councillor Müller listened to this statement with a smile, but did not react to it. Further, several times during the interview Müller compared the Holocaust of the Jews with what was happening in Palestine. We consider it completely grotesque to compare Israel’s military actions with the Holocaust,” Kreutner said.More...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

by John RosenthalOn Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a major setback in elections in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. The CDU still managed to win a plurality of the vote. But its share fell to 34.6% as compared to 44.8% in 2005, the last time state elections were held in North-Rhine Westphalia.Following the announcement of the election results, it almost instantaneously became the consensus view in the English-speaking media that the CDU’s losses were a result of the Merkel government’s decision to spend German tax dollars on an EU bailout package for Greece. The New York Times, for instance, led its report on the vote with the observation that the results are “seen as the first significant political fallout from the Greek crisis.” It did not say by whom.A closer look at the electoral results, however, shows that if voters from North-Rhine Westphalia went to the polls to protest against the Greek bailout, then they lodged their protest in a decidedly irrational form. For the most significant gains in Sunday’s election were clearly made by the Green Party. The Greens increased their share of the vote by 5.9%, thus nearly doubling their score from 2005. The Greens, however, supported the Greek bailout.Indeed, prior to a parliamentary vote on the bailout package in the German Bundestag on Friday, Green parliamentary leader Renate Künast took the floor in order to energetically defend the bailout legislation. “It’s a matter of defending Europe against rip-offs and against speculation,” Künast said. … “At the end of the day, the proper course for us is a clear, green, European course.” And then, with a nod to the representatives of the “post-communist” Left Party, she cried: “Let me put it in your words: Long live international solidarity!”More...pajamasmedia.com

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

by sheikyermamiA second homegrown Islamist from Germany appears to have been killed in fighting in Pakistan, SPIEGEL has reported. Danny R., a 21-year-old from Berlin, first traveled to Pakistan via Istanbul on Sept. 2, 2009 together with another Islamist. There, he joined a group of insurgents in the porous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan that has been a hotbed of Taliban and terrorist activity.(“homegrown” happens when young Westerners grow up among Mohammedans. An obvious reason to stop the settlement and spread of Islam behind enemy lines./ed)More...

Monday, May 10, 2010

Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said that the recently arrested Kosovo Albanian Sabit Geci was an organ trafficker and that his arrest is a result of an ongoing investigation into the organized Albanian organ traffic network that, people say, includes high level separatist Albanian authorities that the US and others treat as though allies and diplomats. Vukcevic said that Geci is “a very important figure in the chain of command of the Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA] and secret police”.He also says that Geci is connected with atrocities in a death camp in Kukes, in Albania, where, presumably Albanians, with the deliberate blind eye by the government of Albania, Serbs were tortured and killed.Vukcevic says that Geci is a man connected with the “Yellow House” (pictured below) that is in Albania where the KLA extracted organs out of the Serb victims. Geci is also, says Vukcevic, connected with Albanian crime network in Drenica, which is the epicenter of the Kosovo Albanian violent takeover of Kosovo.More...serbianna/bozinovich

Muslim women in Switzerland who refuse to work without wearing the veil will have their social benefits reduced.The head of Social Services in Fribourg defended the decision to reduce welfare benefits by 15 percent over three months.Marie Therese Maradan told Sunday papers it was inconceivable the women who don't find work because of their veils should live off the state for years.An appeal has been launched against the decision, which the Swiss Central Islamic council has described as discriminatory.More...

Sunday, May 09, 2010

by John RosenthalOn first glance, the report in the popular German tabloid Bild could have seemed like a bad joke. “Guantánamo Detainees Slated to Go to Hamburg,” the headline ran. “Despite protests…,” the article began, “[German] Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière appears to be determined to accept three of the 183 suspected terrorists still detained at the US camp in Guantánamo.” “After their arrival in Germany,” it continued, “the detainees, who are allegedly not dangerous, are supposed to be housed at first in Hamburg, Bild has learned.” Yes, Hamburg. The report, which was the talk of the German news media in the days before Chancellor Merkel’s mid-April visit to the United States, went virtually entirely ignored by the American media. One of the few English-language news articles to touch upon it was a chatty English-language offering from the German wire service DPA, which emphasized …More...

by Benjamin WeinthalAriel Muzicant, the head of Austria’s Jewish community, on Wednesday became the first major European Jewish leader to boycott a Holocaust commemoration event, because of the pro-Iranian policies of the Austrian government. According to the Graz-based Kleine Zeitung daily, Muzicant said his decision to stay away from the annual Mauthausen concentration camp event held in the Austrian parliament constituted a “silent protest.”More...

Saturday, May 08, 2010

by John RosenthalHorst Köhler’s attacks on “international finance” fly dangerously close to some worrisome historical precedents.“Die Krise nicht verschwenden!” — “Don’t Waste the Crisis!” This is the title of the speech given by German President Horst Köhler to the Munich Economic Summit last week. The speech appears under this title both on the website of the summit, an annual affair sponsored by the BMW Herbert Quant Foundation, and on the homepage of the German presidency. The speech is notable, above all, for the severity of its attack on international financial markets and the radicalism of the solutions it proposes for “subduing” the latter.This is by no means the first time that the German president has “excoriated financial capitalism,” as the headline of a report in Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung put it. In a May 2008 interview with the German weekly Stern, Köhler described financial markets as a “monster.” In an October 2009 speech to the German Trade Union Association, Köhler again used the expression, insisting that the markets were a “monster” that needs “taming.” The title of the speech on the presidential website was “The Untamed Monster.” (See my Pajamas Media report here.)Köhler is a longtime member of Germany’s ostensibly “conservative” Christian Democratic Union (CDU). (Technically, his membership is suspended during his term as president.) German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, also of the CDU, recently said that all German parties were in agreement that the crisis had to be “used” to regulate the financial sector.More...

Friday, May 07, 2010

As we know too well by now, sometime in the past century the religion of Muhammad was weaponized—that is, there was a coupling of terrorism and Islam among its militant believers. This development didn't take place in isolation, however. Islamism, as we now call a radical version of the faith, emerged in close contact with the West. In the decades before 9/11 Western governments often turned a blind eye to Islamist agitation or, in a few cases, naïvely nurtured the very people who today inspire or lead terrorist attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other parts of the world—even, as we were reminded by last week's attempted bombing in Times Square, in the U.S.More...

Thursday, May 06, 2010

By Ioannis MichaletosThe past two decades a new form of terrorism has spread dynamically in a worldwide level. The USA was one of the first countries to alert itself since the late 80’s with this kind of asymmetrical warfare, but it wasn’t until 9/11 that the full strength of the Islamic-driven terrorism was shown. The 19 hijackers proved to be a peril for the security of the world, in greater respect that rogues states and third world dictatorships. The fanatics of Islam have engineered a new way of war through the Salafist Jihad, and without restrains concerning civilian casualties. The new terror is composed by networks of individuals spread throughout the globe that provide logistic support to the mercenaries and soldier of Islam that perform terrorist actions.More...

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

The party of Muslim migrants of Germany — “Alliance for Peace and Fairness” expressed intension to participate in the municipal elections in North Rhine–Westphalia province (Germany) held on May 9.The party is chaired by Haluk Yildiz – the president of Muslim Council in Bonn that gained two seats in the Bonn city council 2009 elections, Deutsche Welle reports. According to the source, there are about 1 million Muslim residents in North Rhine-Westphalia, while a third of them are German citizens and have right to vote.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

by Benjamin WeinthalAfter discussions with German government officials, a senior diplomat at the Israeli Embassy told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the German government has denied a visa to Hamas legislator Dr. Aziz Dweik, who is slated to speak at the eighth annual Palestinians in Europe Conference in Berlin on Saturday.More...

Monday, May 03, 2010

German Islamist terrorist Eric Breininger has reportedly been killed in a battle against Pakistani soldiers in the Waziristan region, a media report said on Monday.According to news magazine Der Spiegel, the Uzbekistan-based terrorist group the Islamic Jihad Union has issued a statement announcing that Breininger and the group’s webmaster were killed on April 30. German intelligence sources believe the webmaster may be a Lower Saxony-born man called Ahmet M. who was deported to Turkey seven years ago. Breininger, a Saarland native and member of IJU, had repeatedly appeared on terrorist videos calling for holy war against Germany. He is also suspected of having ties with the Sauerland cell terrorists sentenced in March for poltting to attack US diplomats, soldiers and civilians.The statement sent to the magazine said the two were killed near the city of Mir Ali, but Ahmet M. was allegedly able to kill four soldiers with a grenade “despite his severe injuries” before he died.If the deaths are confirmed, Breininger, who changed his name to Abdulgaffar Almani, would be the fourth German Islamist to be killed in the region.More...

Sunday, May 02, 2010

by Nebojsa MalicIn October last year, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu famously "rode into" Sarajevo and delivered a lecture about the "golden age" of Ottoman rule to an adulating audience. On that occasion, he declared:"Now is the time for reunification. Then we will rediscover the spirit of the Balkans. We need to create a new feeling of unity in the region. We need to strengthen regional ownership, a common regional conscience… It all depends on which part of history you look to. From the 15th to the 20th century, the history of the Balkans was a history of success. We can have this success again."Over the past six months, the Turkish government has wasted no time translating Davutoglu’s announced policy into practice. The FM has organized monthly meetings with his colleagues from Bosnia and Serbia. Last weekend, Turkish president Gul, Serbian president Tadic and acting Bosnian president Silajdzic signed a joint declaration on regional policy. Ankara is also claiming credit for Serbia’s parliamentary declaration on Srebrenica and NATO’s recent overtures to Bosnia.With the EU increasingly busy salvaging its crumbling financial foundations, and the US preoccupied with adventures elsewhere, it appears that Turkey has emerged as the new dominant power in the Balkans.More...

Saturday, May 01, 2010

German government officials informed the Israeli Embassy in Berlin on Wednesday that Hamas health minister Basim Naim would not be issued a visa to attend an academic conference in early June at a university in Bad Boll in southern Germany. The Federal Center for Political Education, an institution linked to the German government, had invited the Naim to appear at the conference titled "Speaking with Hamas and Fatah". Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that Israeli diplomats in Berlin held intensive discussions with German officials during which they asked that Naim not be allowed to attend the conference.More...

Jyllands-Posten don't mention it in this article, but Westergaard has meanwhile been forced to go on vacation from Jyllands-Posten for security reasons. Kurt Westergaard was supposed to appear Tuesday in an interview on ZDF's popular Markus Lanz Show, but the interview with the Danish cartoonist has come to nothing.The German media company decided to drop the footage due to fear for their employees lives and safety during and after the show, reports gallery owner Erik Guldager, who was also supposed to have participated in the program."ZDF are supposedly under pressure by one or more groups. It's another example of censorship and self-censorship for fear of violent reprisals, which I deeply regret. The future looks darker than before in regard to openness, freedom and debate," says Erik Guldager of the Draupner Gallery in Skanderborg.He thinks that violence and threats are increasingly making an impression in the debate on censorship, self-censorship and freedom of speech. So much so that the debate is often silenced.Erik Guldager says that Westergaard was to talk about his life after the threats and he was supposed to talk about how it was to have Westergaard's cartoons in his gallery. "But yesterday an employee from ZDF called to say that filming was canceled. She said they couldn't guaranteed Kurt's safety and later admitted that they feared for their employee's lives and safety. This is further stigmatizing of Kurt".ZDF will first comment on the case on Monday, a spokesperson told jp.dk.In January auction house Lauritz.com announced they did not wish to have a Kurt Westergaard drawing for their collection for Haiti's children."Based on the recent attack on Kurt Westergaard we must acknowledge that the terror threat is still of such nature that we can't predict the consequences of a sale. We value our employee's safety, so that any risk-assessment must naturally be part of our considerations," said Mette Jessen, concept-head for Lauritz.com.The decision of the auction house was later criticized by [Danish] Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and SF's head Villy Søvndal.More...